RAK fail

Nate came to visit this weekend and it was an absolute blast. I wish I had more holidays and more time with my little brother! Nolan got us going in the morning with the most amazing blueberry pancakes made with flaxseed and almond meal. Yum! As you can see, we went into the city on Monday and had sesame ballz:

obligatory pizza at Golden Boy:
walked through chinatown...
and took a very touristy chinatown picture in too much sun.
I have no idea how far we walked, but I was pooped afterwards! So after Nate and Nolan and I went mini-golfing, I was pretty easy to talk out of spin class and into Thai food at our fave place, and then polenta and a movie later. Nate and I made up for it after Nolan went to bed with a late night Insanity session. Whew!

Saturday seemed like a pretty normal day, except that I cleaned our ENTIRE apartment on my hands and knees. Or...mostly the kitchen, actually. And then I went to watch the 49ers game with some friends and the rest of the day was a loss. Heh.

Sunday was pure awesome. We got up (no alarm because it was Nolan's day off - woo!), stopped at Starbucks, and then headed to The Highway for church. Then we lunched at a fantastic Vietnamese place in our 'hood, and I went home to work out, start dinner, and wait for Nate to arrive. That night we had several friends over for a full-on German dinner with Spaetzle, Knoedels, Schweinebraten slow-cooked in beer, and german potato salad and gravy. Mmm! We finished the night with 6 of us playing Settlers and noshing on Erin's amazing polenta-pecan apple crisp.

Not much else to update on, except that my resolutions are still going well except for the Random Acts of Kindness one. I'll be honest, I thought of buying the person behind me at Starbucks their drink, but that is the only good thing I've come up with. It's tough! So I'm not going to hold myself to it anymore (I suck!) but instead just do those things when the opportunity strikes.

Thankful Thursday

Let me take a minute before anything else and write a quick Haiku. Ahem:
Kaiser I love thee,
the pinnacle of health care;
and Nolan agrees.

Okay, maybe not the best Haiku ever written...but really. I bet Nolan is rolling his eyes as he reads this, because ever since switching to Kaiser health care I'm SOLD. I'm considering tattooing "THRIVE" on my ribcage. Let me show you why:
- Last week I needed to make an appointment with a specialist. So I signed onto the website, and searched for one that I liked, and bookmarked her. I chose not to book online for whatever reason, but that's definitely an option.
- The next day, I called the advice line nurse, and she told me exactly what I needed from my appointment, and asked if Friday worked for me and listed off a bunch of times that were open. Holy cow!
- When I told her a good time, she confirmed that I was booked with "Dr.____" which was the doctor I had bookmarked online...I totally forgot to even mention that to her but she knew!
- I showed up on Friday at 10am. Free valet parking - booyah. The parking attendant told me where to go. Then as I was getting near my building, the ambulance driver hopped out of the vehicle, asked if he could help me get where I was going. Yes, I'll take a free escort!
- I checked in. 30 seconds.
- I put my slip of paper in a window, and then my name was called before my seat was warm.
- Nurse took b/p, weight, info, all that good stuff. Super friendly.
- Doctor showed up. 2 MINUTES LATER. If that. Super, super nice and helpful.
- Appointment was efficient. Doctor put in order for a prescription and told me I could pick it up at the lab DOWNSTAIRS. Holy cow. Also put in order for bloodwork. Also downstairs.
- Took number for bloodwork, was called 3 minutes later and painlessly drained of a few ounces. Sent on my merry way.
- Took number for prescription, number called and prescription explained...maybe 5 minutes total.
All in all, the whole thing was less than an hour. And I can do everything online! My doctor immediately emailed me my test results, and let me know if I need to refill my prescription I can do it online and have it shipped to me. Sweet! So anyway: if you've ever had a doctor's appointment, you'll see how truly wonderful this experience was! I am thoroughly impressed! Also: I stopped at Starbucks afterwards as a treat and they only charged me a dollar for my latte. Score!

So, moving on:
1. I'm thankful for our fantastic health insurance for which I don't pay a penny! It's amazing.
2. I'm thankful for fun new gym classes! I tried spin class with Erin on Monday and OMG. My quads are still burning and I don't think I stopped sweating for hours afterwards. Also today I tried Zumba and it was actually fun! So there, Mom, now I'll zumba with you. Worst part was my realizing how uncoordinated I actually am compared to how graceful and athletic I thought I was. Also: terrible at dancing apparently. Upswing? Had to laugh at myself and that's always good for you.
3. Thankful for the long weekend coming up! Nate is coming to visit on Sunday-Monday, so that will be a hoot. Plus it's been a weird week. I would say stressful but I feel like I'm not able to justify saying that anymore, seeing as how my work life is a drop in the bucket compared with Nolan's crazy schedule.
4. I'm thankful that Nolan is going to start wearing a helmet when he bikes.
5. I'm thankful that I've managed to stick with my new year commitments, because I'm already noticing a difference in my life! How refreshing.

What are you thankful for?

loser cat

As part of my post-holiday organizing of my life, I started a plan to eat healthier. I wasn't necessarily eating badly before, but I wasn't getting enough nutrients or things that my body needed. Since I work out quite a bit, I suspect some of my tiredness came from a) all the holiday candy/sugar and b) not meeting my body's nutritional needs. So I started using the Insanity Nutrition Guide (linked there), and let me just tell you. I'm having a hard time with it! And it's not the reason you may think. I am loving the meals they list, and using the tables of foods to come up with things that I like to eat, but the amount of protein I'm consuming now and the frequency of meals (5 actual meals, not just snacks) is making me uncomfortably full all the time. By the time I get to the meal in the late afternoon, I'm dreading having to eat again. All that said, my energy levels have been up and I've lost a pound in the last few days(which is not what I'm trying to do, but hey at least I'm not gaining either). I guess we'll see how it goes and if I can get used to it or not.

My dad drove down to the Bay yesterday to have lunch with me and drop off the little turdlet at our house from his extended vacation, and when I got home I noticed that he had left me a copy of and amended the LOST CAT sign my brother had posted all over the neighbourhood:

I guess I'll just have to make sure Milo leaves a nice turd on his pillow next time he visits.

This past weekend I was at the wedding of some friends from college, and it was AWESOME. The wedding was fun, the weather was nice, and most of all I got to see tons of dear friends from Davis. So much fun!!! However, I took all of 1 picture from the entire weekend. At least it's a good one of Chels and Tim:

So I guess I'll be waiting for more people to post pics on Facebook before I poach them and stick 'em on here.

Happy Tuesday!

Thankful Thursday

So much to be thankful for so far this year. So I'm going to jump into it and update a bit later with normal stuff, since I'll undoubtedly have tons of pictures from the wedding (read: college reunion) that I'm going to this weekend.

1. I'm thankful for unexpected time with Nolan! January so far hasn't been as bad as we thought (though I know we're only a few days in, blah).

2. I'm thankful for Milo being safe and sound! You never really realize how much you love a little pet until they seem to be gone. I need that little turd to follow me around and cry in the mornings and snuggle with me at night.

3. I'm thankful that our candy supply is slowly starting to dwindle. When it's cold outside, my self-control goes out the window.

4. I'm thankful for a fresh start. 2011 was a doozy, but December was even more so. What a month. I'm ready for a clean beginning to an amazing year, with new commitments (doing well still on those, thank you very much) and new adventures.

5. I'm thankful for the chance to see college friends this weekend and celebrate Josh and Renae's marriage!

What are you thankful for?

Quote of the day (taken from Facebook, a post I found from my wall in 2006):

Nolan: " If I was hanging in a tree with bars all around, and a bunch of monkeys came walking by taking pictures of me, yah Id throw feces at them too" - A role reversal as told by Nolan Caldwell 4/5/06

A New Day

Yesterday was the first day of the new year, and I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was grouchy and irritable, and woke up to find Milo gone. He had disappeared outside of my parents' house, and now 36 hours later, I've just had news that he's been discovered. I shed some tears and didn't sleep at all last night for worrying, but my first reaction (besides overwhelming relief and happiness!) to hearing that he had turned up was to resolve to spank Milo for causing so much grief these two days. This past month has been a rough one for me in a lot of ways! Happy Holidays indeed.

But since that was just yesterday and today, let's back up a bit, shall we?

Finally after a few months, I've got pictures of my DIY project for this year! A few weeks ago I finished making my homemade vanilla extract to give to friends and coworkers for Christmas, and it turned out splendidly! I even got to sample several batches of cookies and bars made with it, and they were oh-so-good.

To get in the holiday spirit, before leaving for the holidays, some friends and I made these gorgeous gingerbread houses! Mine is the boring one on the left. Apparently I had a little photobomber when I took this picture:

I was able to visit my parents for Christmas, and am so glad I did, although I was really sad that I couldn't see Nolan on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He was working until the 28th, so I wouldn't have been able to see him even if I had stayed at our house. Sad, but unavoidable. I was stoked when he was able to join me on the 28th and spend some time with all of us! Christmas itself was a low-key, fun day. We went to church, had breakfast with our whole "original" family (my parents and both brothers, with no significant others), had our annual silly string extravaganza, and opened presents before a huge feast with my gramma and Opa. It was good times.

Also over the Christmas break, I had myself a little charge. A cocker spaniel pup named Sadie, who was SUPER cute and mellow, and generally such fun to care for! She made having a puppy look easy!

That picture and the one below were taken by me on ylehsa's camera, and the one of me was taken by her. We walked around Placerville with her boss's fancy camera and played with different settings (not that I know a thing about cameras! I just like taking pictures). Doesn't she look great?

And I love this picture below that she took, because I look so carefree. That's how I was feeling at that moment, and I like that she captured it :)

Nolan's parents joined us at my parents' house for New Year's, and it was such a treat to have a big fun group together! There were a lot of board games that went on.

The Caldwells...
The Akin clan at breakfast:
My mother and father-in-law!
Since my in-laws were visiting, they also brought their canine friends, so in total, we had 5 dogs and 2 cats in the house. Needless to say the cats spent their days in hiding while the loud mutts took over the house. Here are 3/5 of the pups. Sadie is in the act of trying to join the other two with my mom on the couch.

Generally I don't make New Year's Resolutions because the only thing I can count on myself doing is failing to keep them. So this year I'm simply calling them "commitments" to inspire myself to stick with them. Here are my big three:

1. Have a quiet time every day. So far, so good. I tend to prioritize this behind everything else, and it generally falls by the wayside.

2. Exercise healthily. I tend to get obsessive about my workouts, and put exercise above other more important things (like quiet times) I should be doing. I need to be willing to swap out a workout for a nice walk sometimes or just be flexible about priorities.

3. Practice random acts of kindness at least once a week, if not more often. I love thinking that I could change a person's day for the better, and I need to commit to more than just thinking about it.

What are your commitments for this new year?

500

I know, I know...my last post was on December 1. And today is what, the 19th? Yikes. Let me claim vacation, and also fatigue as the reasons for not being more diligent about posting. And to make it up to you, I'll...well, I'll let you buy me a coffee, how about that for a deal?

Before I move on, I should probably just note that this is my 500th blog post on this particular blog. I don't even know how many posts I had on my old one, but it was a lot. Woo!


While on vacation, we got our Christmas pictures taken (rather, my parents followed us with a camera while we argued over what a "good" Christmas picture should be...and somehow ended up in aprons?):

We also got together with a large chunk of Nolan's family in Oregon, and somehow managed to get a decent picture of everyone out of it!


Upon returning, my meals switched back to this to make up for the holiday goodies I'd been putting away. Definitely not like eating cardboard, and I was SO full afterward! Yum!

Speaking of which, Nolan and I went to a new Indian place for date night last night, and since the buffet was only $1 pricier than most dishes, we opted for the buffet. I realized what a poor decision this was as I lay on the floor last night, moaning about my stuffed belly.

Also, when we returned we found a card in our mailbox...from our mailman! How sweet is this?! He even changed our street from "Santa Clara" to "Santa Claus", haha:

Happy Holidays!

Thankful Thursday

What do they say? Oh right:

'Tis the season!

I found some cheery candles for my awesome candelabra:
Some festive throw-pillows:
I used the same festive candle for the bathroom, because every room has to be in the holiday mood:
And just something to set the mood from the hallway:

1. I'm thankful for my vacation coming up in just a few short days! A whole week! Phew, we need it!

2. I'm thankful that we've had lots of good food as of late; leftovers from Thanksgiving. There's been no scrounging for tasty snacks this week!

3. I'm thankful we have friends who will watch Milo for us next week so we don't have to worry about him. It's such a relief to have a good "babysitter".

4. I'm thankful the holidays are here because no other time of year elicits such "goodness" from people. I like seeing people be a little more patient, a little more kind, a little more loving.

5. I'm thankful for honest, good conversations. I've had a lot of those in the past few weeks, and it's really been priceless.

What are you thankful for?